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sciencehabit writes “Peer inside an antique radio and you’ll find what look like small light bulbs. They’re actually vacuum tubes — the predecessors of the silicon transistor. Vacuum tubes went the way of the dinosaurs in the 1960s, but researchers have now brought them back to life, creating a nano-sized version that’s faster and hardier than the transistor (abstract). It’s even able to survive the harsh radiation of outer space.”

mikejuk writes “You can build a computer out of all sorts of things — mechanical components, vacuum tubes, transistors, fluids and … crabs. Researchers at Kobe University in Japan have discovered that soldier crabs have behaviors suitable for implementing simple logic and hence — with enough crabs — you can achieve a complete computer. The Soldier crab Mictyris guinotae has a swarming behavior that is just right for simple logic gates(pdf). When two crab swarms collide they fuse to make a single swarm — and this is enough to build an OR gate.”

nk497 writes with this bit from PCPro: “The first working stored-program computer is set to be rebuilt at Bletchley Park, home to the UK’s National Museum of Computing. The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator ran its first programme in 1949, and was two metres high. Its 3,000 vacuum tubes took up four metres of floor space, and it could perform 650 instructions per second. All data input was via paper tape. The EDSAC used mercury-filled tubes for memory, but in the interests of safety, the replica will use an alternative non-toxic substance. Rebuilding it will take four years, and the public can visit to watch the work as it happens.”